Musings from north of the border
In response to one of your comments, we talked to Aceves and Girardi about the reliever’s role. Girardi says, yes, he would be interested in using Aceves — and Coke when he’s healthy again — for two-inning appearances. If those two continue to pitch well, it would be an obvious help in building the bridge to Mariano.
Aceves, however, told us he couldn’t do that every time out. Two consecutive games of two innings of work would likely be his limit. Then, he said, he’d need at least a day off. Even today, Aceves said, his shoulder is a bit sore – just normal soreness – after pitching two scoreless innings last night.
So it’s something that’s possible at times, just not every time. Good question.
It’s getaway day, which means everyone is hoping beyond hope for a quick game. It’s also “Ladies Night Out” here at Rogers Centre. Yee-hah!
As we write this, Leiter is rolling his chair over his jacket. Repeatedly. Now he realizes it and is staring down at the blue jacket, which is rather dusty. Especially one of the sleeves. The inning just ended, and Leiter is worrying about having to wear the jacket on postgame and looking dirty. This is the stuff from the booth you don’t see.
Last night’s game went three hours, nine minutes. None of the Blue Jays previous five games lasted longer than 2:34. For whatever that’s worth.
Leiter just asked if we’re writing about him. Yes. We’re also wondering what happened to the Mike and Ike’s.
Swisher’s haircut is creating waves in the clubhouse. It looks a bit like someone took lawnmower blades to his head. Actually, he went to A.J.’s stylist in Toronto – which is another story unto itself. Anyway, in the near future, we will have a Swisher InnerView on “Batting Practice Today presented by Audi” and you’ll get an up-close-and-personal look at his hair. We’ll try to give you a heads up. That should be entertaining.
So Jeter’s back, as is Matsui. Bruney should return within a week. Coke could be available tomorrow. Nady plans to swing a bat in the cage tomorrow. Girardi says it’s too early to forecast a return date for either Posada or Molina; Posada is in Tampa, but not yet playing games, and Molina remains in New York.
That’s today’s injury update, brought to you by Benadryl. Or whatever allergy medication we’re taking today.
Leiter just said he didn’t buy more Mike and Ike’s. He also said he read the blog – really, he read it! – and was amused that Mike and Ike’s are so popular. Keep reading, Al. And bring those Mike and Ike’s next time. 🙂
Tomorrow will be Alex’s first game at Yankee Stadium. Something tells us he’ll be very happy to see the home fans after some of the treatment he’s received here and in Baltimore. Sources say the Toronto fans – particularly on Tuesday — have been as unruly as any the Yankees have seen in a while. They were throwing coins into the Yankees bullpen and yelling all kinds of vulgarities. And we thought Canadians were a gentle sort.
The Kimberly Jones Blog 
Kim,
Your blogs give us a great behind the scenes look at what goes on the the booth. In addition to that your comments make me laugh. Yeah Matsui just homered. I will be checking Al’s sleeve on the post game. LOL
Have a safe trip back home.
Dan
kim, how can i watch nicks innerview when i have yet to see robbies??? im teasing but come on kim i thought i had your word
are you doing a live chat during the home stand?
that leiter story is very very funny because i do stuff like that all the time. can you talk to them while theyre broadcasting, cause you could have let him know. haha just kidding, i would have just watched it keep happening too!
whats kenny like in the booth, he doesnt get teased by michael like the other guys; is he just too perfect?
thanks so so much for this blog; i love it!!!
What happened to the Yankee’s best hitter ??
Melky Caberra has the highest batting average of any Yankee !! Has Girardi lost his mind completely ??
enjoyed having leiter this series…how about leiter and o’neill in the both together? like listening to the pitcher and batter mentality being debated on air, plus…they both seem to like to eat.
thanks for the update on posada. was hoping to hear he was running wind sprints like when he was twenty…guess that was asking for too much! lol
hi Kim,
i was at last wed night’s game( lost on c pena homerun). WOW…what an outrageous time we had, ALL VIP TREATMENT. the only downfall was the loss and not getting a shot with you for the photo album. You owe me one. lol…in all seriousness, you do such a phenomenal job, keep up the great work…Doug
Kim I can’t understand how you can sit through all these nail biter games. I turned off my computer but followed with gameday on my phone and when Matsui was up I saw the word (run(s)….So I scrambled to turn my computer back on and watched the rest of this game.. I go media blackout with the games like this…it’s better than anger manangement..lol. But a win like this brings on euphoria.
Statement needed to be made in Toronto and mission was accomplished and you have to feel good about that and now it’s trying to keep the momentum going.
Love your blog and all you hard working…Mike n Ike loving…dirty jacketed broadcasters. You all are the bomb!
Aloha from Hawaii.
Kim, i am so sorry! i found the interview duhhh. it was just sitting there on that sidebar, huh. well i feel stupid now haha thanks so much kim!!! sorry about that!
Nice pun Kim!
A.J. has a stylist?! Do you mean a dude with a razor?
Hi Kim; I thought tonight’s game went well and enjoy your interviews. I also think Cervelli is doing a great job holding down the fort for Posada & Molina. I hope when the time comes, he’ll be the main catcher.
Kim,
Thanks for the bullpen info. Makes sense guys like Aceves can’t do too many consecutive 2 inning appearances. My thought was that Girardi could have a rotation of guys who could go 2 innings in the pen, like Aceves one day then Coke another, and then maybe another guy like Bruney. That way nobody would get too fatigued or tired.
Girardi still needs to get guys like Veras, Albaladejo, and Ramirez to pitch better and with more consistency.
RONDEBMALONE1 – I COULDN’T AGREE WITH YOU MORE. YOU HAVE TO WONDER WHAT “THE MANAGER” IS THINKING. THE YES NETWORK’S TRIVIA QUESTION WAS ABOUT DAMON LEADING THE TEAM IN BA AND OBP. NOT TRUE !!!! THAT WOULD BE MELKY . AND THE HOME PAGE IS ASKING A SURVEY ON BRETT GARDNER ??? HE’S A NICE PINCH RUNNER. CLUELESS !!!
HATS-ALL-FOLKS.COM
I will be at the game tonight to cheer on Alex. It will be good to see him. Hope we win this series.
Hey Kim,
A few postings back you mentioned a special piece they did on Cody Ransom that was really good. I missed it but I would really like to see it (i’m a cody fan-felt so bad when he got hurt)-is there any way to view it now, like online or anything?
Kim- The fans into Toronto were brutal, especially on Tuesday night. Between throwing stuff at the players, there were fights breaking out left and right and fans (especially in the tiers) were being thrown out for chucking soda bottles and caps, and whatever else they could find at each other.
BTW, Andrew (the kid from Toronto that yells obsessively at the players) was trying to give you your own role call on Thursday during BP; It was cute. You must not have heard him but he was quite disappointed that there was no love back.
I have really had it with YES and the Yankees force feeding my Bret Gardner.
Do we really need to see Gardner’s throw from yesterday’s game with Cabrera at the plate? How symbolic is that?
Do we really have to endure interviews with Bret Gardner for every time he exhales, and yet categorically ignore Cabrera and his .320 BA and an OBP that has hovered around .400?
Does anyone here know baseball?
Why isn’t the 24 year old kid with the great numbers the story? Instead, a guy, who is incidentally 25, and has only JUST reached a .300 OBP, is the story???
Must you be white and speak good english to be a determined a good story?
Unbelievable. The Yankee fans don’t ever get up-close-and-personal with Melky from YES.
What’s your problem??
I’m SICK of Gardner – let him EARN all the cult heroism!
Track star!
is there a camera angle of how fast girardi ran out to try to keep damon from being ejected? lol
kbattari@mgxmedia.com , My thoughts exactly !!
Gardner has a couple OK games and YES acts like its the second coming .. Gimme a break on all this. Melky is a far better hitter , has twice the arm and should be the Yanks center fielder ! Gardner probably is OK as a back -up or to pinch run . Other than that he belongs in the minors , double A at best !
Ron
I had posted in a forum the exact same thing. Gardner is being forced fed to us and it is unbelievable. His skills are so lacking. Everyone will get a hit once in a while, but he is not MLB material.
This is what I posted elsewhere:
I just posted the following in another thread (Why isn’t Melky Playing)
Have you ever heard of more talk about one player in your life. They haven’t stopped talking about GARDY. I didn’t see anything more than a normal players performance and yet everyone mentions how great everything he has done including how great his walk was. This is almost sickening. Girardi has told everyone, Talk about Gardy Talk about Gardy. Girardi is going to put Gardner back in CF. He needed everyone to say how wonderful Gardner played. The throw to home was thrown from about 30 feet behind 2nd and was off line. Cervelli saved it and made the out, but it sure wasn’t anything spectacular by Gardner. If Gardner just catches a routine fly ball, they were making a big deal about it. This is getting absurd.
I have stated in many posts, that Girardi is in Love with Gardner and dislikes Melky. He is willing to lose a game and play Gardner rather than play Melky. If you watch Girardi in the dougout when Melky get a hit or home run, he almost doesn’t acknowledge it and yet, he is all over Gardner if he gets a hit or does anything good. What Girardi did to Melky last year was absolutely inexcusable in my opinion. Melky has a 1000% more talent than Gardner and yet, all you ever hear Girardi talk about is Gardner and how wonderful he is.
The more Girardi tries to force Gardner down peoples throats over Melky when they know Gardner is not a ML caliber player, I believe the more people dislike Gardner. I know I am to the point that I can’t even stand to watch Girardi talk about Gardner or Gardner strut around like he is the next Mickey Mantle.